June 22-23, 2018 Grand Rapids, MI

A software conference for software developers of all types

About Beer City Code

Beer City Code is an annual conference for software developers held in Grand Rapids, MI, also known as Beer City, USA. Software creators of
all types are welcome, even those who don't care for beer.

The main conference is held Saturday, June 23, with optional day-long workshops the day before, Friday, June 22. You can attend the conference for just $40, or do the conference plus an all-day workshop on Friday for just $200.
There's even a ticket that includes a VIP party with our speakers and organizers. How cool is that?!

The Beer City Code conference grew our of the success of its predecessor, Grand Rapids DevDay, but was renamed in 2017 to embrace its much more broad appeal outside the Grand Rapids area.

Friday Workshops

With several day-long workshops to choose from focusing on many different exciting and cutting-edge technolgies, our workshop attendees will be able to get hands-on in a smaller classroom setting with our excellent instructors.

Buy a ticket for both a workshop and the conference day to get the most bang for your buck, and don't forget to upgrade to the VIP package and you can top off your weekend with a party at a local establishment with our speakers
and VIPs.

Saturday Conference

Saturday is the main event. Don't miss a moment of this exciting day packed full of top-tier speakers presenting on some very interesting, useful, and cutting-edge technologies and topics.

You won't go hungry, eiter! We'll feed you coffee, snacks, and a filling lunch to keep your brain fueled for all the learning it's going to do.

Be smart and combine your conference ticket with a Friday workshop ticket. You'll save money and learn one topic of your choice in much more detail in a hands-on classroom setting. The VIP package will also get you into a party with our speakers, and VIPs, so why not go all in and register for that?

0

speakers

0

days

0

workshops

0

attendees

Our Speakers

Meet our
speakers

Keynote Speaker

DOUGLAS CROCKFORD

Senior JavaScript Architect, PayPal

Douglas literally wrote the book on JavaScript--
JavaScript: The Good Parts, that is. Over the years, he's worked for Atari, National Semiconductor, Lucasfilm, Yahoo, and PayPal. Douglas
has played a major role in the development of the JavaScript language, popularized the JSON format, and created
both of the popular JSLint and JSMin tools.

Breakout & Workshop Speakers

Ado Kukic

A Token Walks Into a SPA...

I'm Interested!

Ado is a full-stack developer, advocate, and technical writer at Auth0. Mixing his passion of programming
and education, he creates tutorials, courses, and other educational content focusing on security, authentication,
and much more.

Ado Kukic

Ado is a full-stack developer, advocate, and technical writer at Auth0. Mixing his passion of programming
and education, he creates tutorials, courses, and other educational content focusing on security,
authentication, and much more. On the front-end, he prefers Angular, while on the backend he
flip-flops between Node.js and Golang.

Aisha Blake

Give Feedback Fearlessly

I'm Interested!

Aisha Blake arrived in Detroit in 2013 to serve as a Jesuit Volunteer and somehow ended up on the leadership
team for Girl Develop It Detroit.

Aisha Blake

Aisha Blake arrived in Detroit in 2013 to serve as a Jesuit Volunteer and somehow ended up on the
leadership team for Girl Develop It Detroit. This inevitably led to a deep love of the tech community
in Detroit and a desire to put down roots. She has since become the owner of a cat and a house.
She has been an instructor of coding bootcamps, workshops, and online courses while doing client
work as a web developer and will go anywhere you ask if there are puppies and/or karaoke involved.

Alex Konrad

Alex Konrad

Alex Konrad is Technical Director at Joystick Interactive in Los Angeles, CA. Alex is passionate about functional programming, design patterns, and the connections between computers and the sciences. His most prized possession is a signed copy of Linus' Torvalds' book Just For Fun, which he received when he was 12.

Amara Keller

How to Build a Chatbot

I'm Interested!

Amara is a Developer Advocate with IBM on the San Francisco City Team. Before her step into developer relations,
she was an enterprise web application developer.

Amara Keller

Amara is a Developer Advocate with IBM on the San Francisco City Team. Before her step into developer
relations, she was an enterprise web application developer focusing on line of business applications
and assisting developers across various teams on implementing proprietary and open source solutions.
She’s passionate about UX, technical communities (both online and offline) and excited to see
where advances in AI take us. In her spare time she experiments in the kitchen and plays console
video games.

Beau Carnes

Web development basics: Go from zero to project using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

I'm Interested!

Beau Carnes is a software developer and instructor in Grand Rapids, MI.

Beau Carnes

Beau Carnes is a software developer and instructor. Besides teaching in-person workshops and classes, he has created around 100 software training videos on YouTube and the Algorithms in Motion video course from Manning Publications. He currently works with freeCodeCamp to help advance their mission of helping anyone learn to code.

Bernardo Pacheco

I have been building things for the Web for about 12 years now. Throughout my career I have had the
opportunity to work both on the back-end and the front-end with technologies such as XML/XSLT,
Java Servlets, ASP.NET Web Forms, Web API and MVC. But it wasn’t until recently, about 3 years
ago, that I found my true passion for all things JavaScript. In my current role at Domino’s,
I am the technical lead of the A/B Testing team, which is responsible for implementing numerous
tests designed to improve the user experience of Domino’s online ordering platform (dominos.com).

Brianna Marshall

Brianna Marshall is a project manager at designvox. She leads and motivates cross-functional teams,
providing scope definition, plan development, resourcing, risk management, and team organization
through creative process management. She also has expertise in C# .NET, communications, social
research, data management and analysis, and a passion for research and technology that advances
social equity, diversity, and inclusion. Brianna has a B.S. in Geology from Calvin College, and
serves on the boards of Camp Henry and Sisters Who Lead in her spare time.

Bruce Abernethy

Flutter: "Build the best way to develop for mobile."

I'm Interested!

Bruce Abernethy is a life-long coder and educator having written code in the last four decades, and made a living at it over
the last three, and still loving it.

Bruce Abernethy

Bruce Abernethy is a life-long coder and educator having written code in the last four decades, and made a living at it over
the last three, and still loving it. Bruce currently leads the Application Security program at
Meijer, Inc. in Grand Rapids, Michigan - working with agile teams across the company on "delivering
working secure code daily". He likes to design things, solve problems, delight people, build
software, make the world a better place, with teams of awesome people in community.

Charlie Sweet

Antifragile Teams

I'm Interested!

Charlie Sweet coaches agile teams and manages IT professionals at Baird. He was a software developer for
10 years, and has degrees in fine arts and business.

Charlie Sweet

Charlie Sweet coaches agile teams and manages IT professionals at Baird. He was a software developer
for 10 years, and has degrees in fine arts and business. He has been endorsed on LinkedIn for
nunchucks and humility, neither of which are skills he possesses.

Chip Kragt

20 Liters

I'm Interested!

Chip was hired as the Managing Director for 20 Liters in August of 2015. Chip’s background in program implementation,
volunteer management, and planning stem from his over 10 years of non-profit experience in Human and Social Service agencies.

Chip Kragt

Chip was hired as the Managing Director for 20 Liters in August of 2015. Chip’s background in program implementation, volunteer management, and planning stem from his over 10 years of non-profit experience in Human and Social Service agencies, most recently with the American Red Cross. Chip brings more than 3 years of international experience working in Kenya, Haiti, Alaska, and Northern Ireland. Chip holds a BS in Psychology from Cornerstone University. Chip is passionate about the humanitarian right to basic necessities and breaking the cycle of poverty. He and his wife are raising their first child in Grand Rapids, MI.

Chris DeMars

Believe in the Power of CSS

I'm Interested!

Chris DeMars is a UI developer first, UX architect always, working out of Detroit, Michigan. Chris is also
an instructor, teacher assistant, and volunteer for the Ann Arbor and Detroit chapters of Girl Develop
It.

Chris DeMars

Chris DeMars is a UI developer first, UX architect always, working out of Detroit, Michigan. Chris
is also an instructor, teacher assistant, and volunteer for the Ann Arbor and Detroit chapters
of Girl Develop It. Chris loves coming up with solutions for enterprise applications, which include
modular CSS architectures, performance, and advocating for Web accessibility. When he is not
working on making the Web great and inclusive you can find him writing blog posts, watching horror
movies, drinking the finest of beers, or in the woods of northern Michigan.

Daniel Lindeman

A Practical Introduction to Serverless Architectures

I'm Interested!

Dan is a Software Engineer from Grand Rapids, MI, where he lives with his wife Kayla and his dog Bowie.

Daniel Lindeman

Dan is a Software Engineer from Grand Rapids, MI, where he lives with his wife Kayla and his dog
Bowie. When not learning a new language, framework, or piece of tech, Dan enjoys playing Nintendo
games and spending time with friends. An educator-turned-developer, Dan got his start in the
software industry testing embedded automotive infotainment systems. He is currently a part-time
Masters student at Grand Valley State University focusing on Web Architectures. A self-described
conference junkie, Dan can be found organizing community events and software meetup groups all
over West Michigan.

Darren McCleary

Migrating the New York Times Games Platform to AppEngine

I'm Interested!

I'm a senior software engineer on The New York Times Games Team. I spent most of 2017 migrating the entire
Games platform from LAMP to a microservice architecture in GCP with zero downtime for its 300,000+ paying
puzzlers.

Darren McCleary

I'm a senior software engineer on The New York Times Games Team. I spent most of 2017 migrating the
entire Games platform from LAMP to a microservice architecture in GCP with zero downtime for
its 300,000+ paying puzzlers, and I now work on new game development. I hold a Bachelor's in
Computer Science from Drexel University.

Dave Poortvliet

Your homepage sucks and it’s your fault

I'm Interested!

Dave has been providing technical direction and oversight of university web operations at Grand Valley State
University for over 15 years. He ensures design and development of custom web applications align with
the strategic goals of the organization.

Dave Poortvliet

Dave has been providing technical direction and oversight of university web operations at Grand Valley
State University for over 15 years. He ensures design and development of custom web applications
align with the strategic goals of the organization. Dave leads, manages, and mentors a talented
team of web developers, designers, and student workers to deliver custom web applications that
provide value to the faculty, staff, and students of the university.

David Giard

Effective Data Visualization

I'm Interested!

David Giard is a former accountant and a former biochemist, who has been developing solutions using Microsoft
technologies for over 2 decades.

David Giard

David Giard is a former accountant and a former biochemist, who has been developing solutions using
Microsoft technologies for over 2 decades. Currently, David helps people build solutions in his
role as a Microsoft Technical Evangelist. David has been very active in the developer community,
speaking at numerous major conferences, code camps, and user groups around the world; helping
to lead user groups; and helping to organize conferences and other geek events. He is the host
and producer of the mildly popular online TV show Technology and Friends. He is the co-author
of the Wrox book Real World .NET, C#, and Silverlight. You can read his latest thoughts at www.DavidGiard.com.
His hobbies include video, photography, sports, and embarrassing his sons.

Don Schenck

OpenWhisk: Serverless, hosted anywhere

I'm Interested!

A developer who has seen it all, Don is a Microsoft MVP, author of "Transitioning to .NET Core on Red
Hat Enterprise Linux" by O’Reilly Media, and currently a Director of Developer Experience at Red
Hat, with a focus on Microservices and Serverless computing.

Don Schenck

A developer who has seen it all, Don is a Microsoft MVP, author of “Transitioning to .NET Core on
Red Hat Enterprise Linux” by O’Reilly Media, and currently a Director of Developer Experience
at Red Hat, with a focus on Microservices and Serverless computing. Prior to Red Hat, Don was
a Developer Advocate at Rackspace where he was immersed in cloud technology. He enjoys cooking
and studying human behavior, and loathes the designated hitter rule. Don's overarching belief
is this: "A program is not a communication between a developer and a machine; it's a communication
between a developer and the next developer."

Doug Mair

Doug is a Director of Consultanting at Improving Enterprises in Columbus Ohio. He started developing software
as a high school freshman on a TRS-80 16K. He loved programming so much that he decided to get a BSCIS
from Ohio State University.

Doug Mair

Doug is a Director of Consultanting at Improving Enterprises in Columbus Ohio. He started developing
software as a high school freshman on a TRS-80 16K. He loved programming so much that he decided
to get a BSCIS from Ohio State University. Since then he has developed software for Graphics
Kiosks, Rules Engines, Specialized Hardware and ASP.Net websites. Over the last several years,
he has helped grow the Developer Community in Central Ohio. He spends his free time developing
Windows applications and Unity games.

Dustin Ewers

Full Stack Performance Tuning with ASP.NET Core

I'm Interested!

Dustin Ewers is a consultant at Centare, where he works to help businesses build better software. Dustin
has been building software for over 10 years, specializing in Microsoft technologies.

Dustin Ewers

Dustin Ewers is a consultant at Centare, where he works to help businesses build better software.
Dustin has been building software for over 10 years, specializing in Microsoft technologies.
He is an active member of the technical community, speaking at user groups and conferences in
and around Wisconsin. While not building the software of the future, Dustin likes a mix of low
tech and high tech hobbies, including reading, cooking, hiking, and fishing. He writes about
technology at https://www.dustinewers.com/. Follow him on Twitter at @DustinJEwers

Ed Charbeneau

Goodbye client side JavaScript, hello C#'s Blazor

I'm Interested!

Ed is a Microsoft MVP and an internationally recognized online influencer, speaker, writer, design admirer,
a Developer Advocate for Progress, and expert on all things web development.

Ed Charbeneau

Ed is a Microsoft MVP and an internationally recognized online influencer, speaker, writer, design
admirer, a Developer Advocate for Progress, and expert on all things web development. Ed enjoys
geeking out to cool new tech, brainstorming about future technology, and admiring great design.
Ed has shared his insights, experiences, and advice around collaboration, knowledge management,
social computing, and training at many industry events around the United States. Highly ethical
and engaging with an uncanny business acumen, he is a creative community builder and outside
the box thinker. Focusing on Financial, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Agency and Professional Services.
He has defined, architected, implemented line of business solutions with a touch of style and
UX best practices.

Frances Coronel

TypeScript 101

I'm Interested!

Frances is a developer with a design background who gets a lot of personal satisfaction out of helping the
local tech community through her varied skill set.

Frances Coronel

Frances is a developer with a design background who gets a lot of personal satisfaction out of helping
the local tech community through her varied skill set. Frances currently works as a Software
Engineer at Accenture's Liquid Studio in Silicon Valley, specializing in UI engineering. She
has a Master's in Computer Science from Cornell Tech and a Bachelor's in Computer Science from
Hampton University. In the long-term, she wants to be able to help engineer and invest in alternative
forms of education for computer science and become a leader in that community. Frances is passionate
about all aspects of development and regularly contributes to open-source projects while attending
conferences, hackathons, and Meetups related to tech.

Guy Royse

Machine Learning for Gamers: Dungeon Forecasts & Dragon Regressions

I'm Interested!

Guy works for Nexosis in Columbus, Ohio as a Developer Evangelist. Guy goes out into developer communities
and helps others build great software.

Guy Royse

Guy works for Nexosis in Columbus, Ohio as a Developer Evangelist. Combining his decades of experience
in building software with a passion for sharing what he has learned, Guy goes out into developer
communities and helps others build great software. Guy has programmed in numerous languages over
the years—many of them semicolon delimited—including C++, C#, and Java. More recently he has
worked with dynamic languages like JavaScript and on mobile applications with languages like
Swift. Teaching and community have long been a focus for Guy. He is President of the Columbus
JavaScript Usergroup and has been part of the session selection committee for CodeMash for the
last five years. When given an opportunity, he teaches programming at a prison in central Ohio.
In past lives, Guy has worked as a consultant in a broad range of industries including healthcare,
retail, and utilities. He spent several years as a consultant in and several more years working
for a major insurance provider. This has given him a broad understanding of technology application
and business problems. In his personal life, Guy is a hardboiled-geek interested in role-playing
games, science fiction, and technology. He also has a slightly less geeky interest in history
and linguistics. He lives in central Ohio with his wife and three sons. In his spare time, he
helps lead his neighborhood Cub Scout Pack and likes to camp.

Jace Browning

Best Practices for Automated Regression Testing

I'm Interested!

Jace Browning builds, customizes, integrates, and teaches engineering software tools. He has worked on products
in the embedded, mobile, and web space, but his expertise is systems programming, specifically in Python.

Jace Browning

Jace Browning builds, customizes, integrates, and teaches engineering software tools. He has
worked on products in the embedded, mobile, and web space, but his expertise is systems programming,
specifically in Python. Professionally, he focuses on quality assurance, automation, and
process optimization. In his free time, he enjoys contributing to open source and volunteering
at local technology events.

Jamie Wright

Building a Realtime Websocket API in Phoenix

I'm Interested!

Jamie Wright is a maker of internet things with a love/hate relationship for Redbull™, standing desks, and
paintball guns. He has a love only relationship with teaching, learning, and building bots.

Jamie Wright

Jamie Wright is a maker of internet things with a love/hate relationship for Redbull™, standing desks,
and paintball guns. He has a love only relationship with teaching, learning, and building bots.
Jamie runs Tatsu, a software bot that helps teams save time by performing standup meetings over
Slack.

Jeff McGehee

Building the World’s First Beer Tap Powered by Facial Recognition

I'm Interested!

Jeff’s professional career has been focused on applying computation to engineering problems — the majority
of which have involved simulation, calibration, system control, and optimization.

Jeff McGehee

Jeff’s professional career has been focused on applying computation to engineering problems — the
majority of which have involved simulation, calibration, system control, and optimization. The
more he’s studied machine learning, the more he’s become motivated to understand how it can be
applied effectively to complex problems in the real (engineering) world. At Very, he brings his
applied mathematics and machine learning knowledge to a wide array of problems and projects involving
images, natural language, social graphs, temporal data, and geospacial data. His academic background
in control systems and robotics, has allowed him to contribute to IoT hardware projects at Very
as well. Before joining Very, Jeff was a research and design engineer at Variable, Inc., where
he developed proprietary mathematical models for accurate color measurement; set up a scientific
analysis python environment with custom modules for internal company use; and built and deployed
internal tools that allow non-technical workers to apply machine learning models.

Jenn Creighton

The how's and why's of flexible React components

I'm Interested!

Jenn Creighton is a senior front end engineer at ClassPass. She is likely to talk your ear off about React,
JavaScript, or her hatred of CSS floats.

Jenn Creighton

Jenn Creighton is a senior front end engineer at ClassPass. She is likely to talk your ear off about
React, JavaScript, or her hatred of CSS floats. She lives in New York City with her 2 cats, 1
dog, and 1 husband. She probably sewed the outfit she is wearing.

John M. Wright

Mocking .NET Without Hurting Its Feelings

I'm Interested!

As a 18-year veteran of the software industry, John has gained development experience ranging from “shrink-wrapped”
software to large, distributed networks using multiple platforms and technologies.

John M. Wright

As a 18-year veteran of the software industry, John has gained development experience ranging from
“shrink-wrapped” software to large, distributed networks using multiple platforms and technologies.
He has a wide experience base with software development and management across the entire system
lifecycle, including requirements gathering and analysis, architecture design, development, testing,
and release. He has a pragmatic approach to and a heavy interest in continuous improvement of
people, process, and product. He's currently applying that experience as a Full-Stack Web Developer
at Stack Overflow on the Internal Development team.

Jordan Whiteley

Pragmatic Functional Programming in C#

I'm Interested!

Jordan is a low key guy with the drive to learn about software architecture, functional programming, and
web automation. He’s been into computers since the day his uncle gave him his old commodore 64.

Jordan Whiteley

Jordan is a low key guy with the drive to learn about software architecture, functional programming,
and web automation. He’s been into computers since the day his uncle gave him his old commodore
64. He even chose to buy his own computer instead of a car when he turned 16. Currently he enjoys
being a Lego robotics coach for middle schoolers, playing Super Nintendo, taking walks in the
woods, and snuggling on the couch with his 3 kids and 2 cats.

Justin Majeske

Angular in the Enterprise

I'm Interested!

Justin Majeske is currently a Lead Developer at Kunz, Leigh and Associates with 13 years of experience designing,
developing, and maintaining web-based and batch systems.

Justin Majeske

Justin Majeske is currently a Lead Developer at Kunz, Leigh and Associates with 13 years of experience designing, developing, and maintaining web-based and batch systems. As a certified Java developer, he has implemented various critical web-based systems using various back-end and front-end technologies.

Keith Wedinger

AWS Java Lambda Functions with Kotlin

I'm Interested!

Keith Wedinger is a Principal Consultant with Improving. He has over 28 years experience architecting, designing,
developing and delivering high quality software solutions.

Keith Wedinger

Keith Wedinger is a Principal Consultant with Improving. He has over 28 years experience architecting,
designing, developing and delivering high quality software solutions for several companies including
Abercrombie & Fitch, Diebold, IBM, Lexmark, Limited Brands, Ohio State, and Sterling Commerce.
He is very passionate about architecting and developing software solutions that deliver exceptional
ROI to his clients. He has presented at CodeMash, Code PaLOUsa, Columbus Code Camp, M3, Path
to Agility, StirTrek, and That Conference. When not at work, he enjoys dining, traveling and
craft brewery exploration with his beautiful wife Karen and spending time when he can with his
twin daughters.

Kelsey Perdue

Uncovering the Hidden Strengths and Expertise on your Team

I'm Interested!

Kelsey Perdue serves as the Grand Rapids Assistant Campus
Director at Grand Circus, where she helps move adult learners from an initial interest in a tech career
through an intensive training program to work in a rewarding role.

Kelsey Perdue

Kelsey Perdue serves as the Grand Rapids Assistant Campus Director at Grand Circus, where she
helps move adult learners from an initial interest in a tech career through an intensive training
program to work in a rewarding role. Kelsey believes in building better communities for everyone,
and is an avid giver of her “time, treasure, and talent” in the tech community and beyond. She
currently serves on the Board of a political advocacy group, a nonprofit that improves children's
wellbeing, and organizes communities for social action. She has been recognized with the LINC
UP Community Spirit Award for her contributions. Kelsey earned a BS at Howard University and
is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.

Kendell Walker Joseph

The Next Generation of Software Developers

I'm Interested!

Hi, I a software developer and educator based in Grand Rapids. I play bass guitar, make things, and connect
people.

Kendell Walker Joseph

Hi, I a software developer and educator based in Grand Rapids. I play bass guitar, make things, and
connect people.

Kim Arnett 

A Swift Intro to iOS

I'm Interested!

Kim Arnett is an iOS Developer at Expedia. She enjoys watching her creations work wonders while making a
positive impact on the population. She’s interested in technology, feminism, mental health, and Iron
Man.

Kim Arnett 

Kim Arnett is an iOS Developer at Expedia. She enjoys watching her creations work wonders while making
a positive impact on the population. She’s interested in technology, feminism, mental health,
and Iron Man. Current side project includes learning robotics.

Laura Mosher

Harry the Hedgehog Learns You A Communication

I'm Interested!

Laura is a software engineer with a passion for clean code and oxford commas. She's passionate about creating
a better world through code, kindness, and understanding.

Laura Mosher

Laura is a software engineer with a passion for clean code and oxford commas. She's passionate about
creating a better world through code, kindness, and understanding. When she isn't coding, she
enjoys rescuing hedgehogs, making things, and playing games.

Lyn Sawyer

Lyn Sawyer

I am a Software Engineer with experience in Web API, WCF, C#, MSSQL, MVC, Web Forms, Jquery, JavaScript,
CSS and HTML. Yes, I am a nerd. I’m also a wife and a mother. I take Plural Sight courses and
listen to podcasts to keep up with new tech. I love learning new things and I love solving problems.

Matt Behrens

Electron in the Real World

I'm Interested!

Matt has been a software developer and consultant with Atomic Object for three years; during that time and
for decades before, he's worked and supported on several full-stack applications on the web, desktop,
servers, and in the mobile space, across several different industries.

Matt Behrens

Matt has been a software developer and consultant with Atomic Object for three years; during that
time and for decades before, he's worked and supported on several full-stack applications on
the web, desktop, servers, and in the mobile space, across several different industries.

Matthew D. Groves

I have a NoSQL toaster

I'm Interested!

Matthew D. Groves is a guy who loves to code. It doesn't matter if it's C#, jQuery, or PHP: he'll submit
pull requests for anything. He has been coding professionally ever since he wrote a QuickBASIC point-of-sale
app for his parent's pizza shop back in the 90s.

Matthew D. Groves

Matthew D. Groves is a guy who loves to code. It doesn't matter if it's C#, jQuery, or PHP: he'll
submit pull requests for anything. He has been coding professionally ever since he wrote a QuickBASIC
point-of-sale app for his parent's pizza shop back in the 90s. He currently works as a Developer
Advocate for Couchbase. His free time is spent with his family, watching the Reds, and getting
involved in the developer community. He is the author of AOP in .NET (published by Manning),
and is also a Microsoft MVP.

Megan Boczar

Imposter Syndrome - Why did they let me come up here and talk to you?

I'm Interested!

Megan has been a software developer for less than a year. She graduated with a degree from the University
of Michigan in anthropology with minors in museum studies and Polish language, literature, and culture.

Megan Boczar

Megan has been a software developer for less than a year. She graduated with a degree from the
University of Michigan in anthropology with minors in museum studies and Polish language,
literature, and culture. Since graduation, her passion for data took her around the outskirts
of development for several years, before she finally jumped into a bootcamp at Grand Circus
in Detroit. She now works as a web developer at DocNetwork in Ann Arbor, and serves as an
Event Organizer for the Ann Arbor chapter of Girl Develop It.

Michael Carr

A lean mindset minus technical debt equals rapid development

I'm Interested!

I’m Michael Carr and I am the Founder of UK startup - GoRoadie. I started GoRoadie (https://www.goroadie.com)
with the aim of helping driving students in the UK find the right driving instructor for them. Think
AirBnB for driving instructors.

Michael Carr

I’m Michael Carr and I am the Founder of UK startup - GoRoadie. I started GoRoadie (https://www.goroadie.com)
with the aim of helping driving students in the UK find the right driving instructor for them.
Think AirBnB for driving instructors. During the 9 to 5, I’m Software Development Manager at
Amazon (Edinburgh, Scotland) where I lead a team of eight on internal HR projects. Previously,
I lead a fast-paced development team at FindMyPast (Dundee, Scotland), I even acted as an Agile
Consultant for many teams where I helped delivery in several locations. On top of Amazon, I have
worked in Sony Entertainment(London), and Realtime Worlds(Dundee), having worked in software
for 10 years, I have a passion for lean and agile delivery.

Michael O'Keefe, Chris Dahm and Jason Kusnier

Building Applications Using Firebase

I'm Interested!

Michael O'Keefe is a currently Full Stack Developer at Kunz, Leigh and Associates with 3 years of experience
designing, developing and maintaining web based systems using a variety of front and back end technologies
some of which include .NET, Spring, Django, JSTL and Angular.

Michael O'Keefe, Chris Dahm and Jason Kusnier

Michael O'Keefe is a currently Full Stack Developer at Kunz, Leigh and Associates with 3 years
of experience designing, developing and maintaining web based systems using a variety of
front and back end technologies some of which include .NET, Spring, Django, JSTL and Angular.
Chris Dahm is a Full Stack Developer at Kunz, Leigh and Associates. Jason Kusnier is currently
a System Architect at Kunz, Leigh and Associates.

Michael Stahnke

What I’ve learned interviewing more than 200 people face to face

Welcome to the Brownfield: Where automation meets reality

I'm Interested!

Michael Stahnke is Director of Engineering at Puppet, Inc. He's had a few roles at Puppet, and been a
part of the company growing from 35 to 530+ employees.

Michael Stahnke

Michael Stahnke is Director of Engineering at Puppet, Inc. He's had a few roles at Puppet, and
been a part of the company growing from 35 to 530+ employees. He's been heavily involved
with release engineering and community throughout his tenure. He came to Puppet Inc from
Caterpillar, Inc. where he was an infrastructure architect, system administration team lead,
and open source evangelist. Michael also helped get the Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux
(EPEL) repository off the ground in 2005, is the author of Pro OpenSSH (Apress, 2005), is
an organizer of Devopsdays Madison, and rants continuously about technology and computers,
while striving to learn more about them. He blogs at medium.com/@stahnma.

Nathan Loding

CSS-in-JS? What?! Why?!?!

I'm Interested!

I'm a nerd, I've always been a geek, dork, or nerd, and probably will always be. I love solving problems
and technology is the best way to do that. I work professionally as an Application Development Consultant
for OST, in Grand Rapids, MI.

Nathan Loding

I'm a nerd, I've always been a geek, dork, or nerd, and probably will always be. I love solving
problems and technology is the best way to do that. I work professionally as an Application
Development Consultant for OST, in Grand Rapids, MI. Currently, I'm the lead developer and
architect on CareCircle, a healthcare focused product to help patients communicate with their
friends and family. On the side I'm a husband, father, roboticist, and outdoorsman (hiking,
camping, canoeing/kayaking). I enjoy woodworking and build my own canoes and kayaks. I hate
chores and cleaning up after myself.

Olivia Liddell

Becoming an Effective Mentor

I'm Interested!

Olivia Liddell is a Cloud Training Specialist at Cloudbakers. Previously, she taught middle school Arabic in Chicago Public schools (as-salaamu 'alaykum!). She now specializes in technology training and change management. She lives in Chicago and is passionate about teaching

Olivia Liddell

Olivia Liddell is a Cloud Training Specialist at Cloudbakers. Previously, she taught middle school Arabic in Chicago Public schools (as-salaamu 'alaykum!). She now specializes in technology training and change management. She lives in Chicago and is passionate about teaching, cross stitching, and distance running.

Paul and Robin Schroeder

Workshop: Rapid Delivery of Enterprise Architectures

I'm Interested!

As an independent consultant, **Paul Schroeder** has multiple decades of experience developing code for
many large organizations. He has been delivering talks on code generation since 2003.

Paul and Robin Schroeder

As an independent consultant,
Paul Schroeder has multiple decades of experience developing code for many large
organizations. He has been delivering talks on code generation since 2003. Certified
as a MCSD for Web Applications - Toastmaster's Competent Communicator. Recent talks include:

Robin Schroeder is a consultant at MSC Technology Consulting where she specializes
in developing cross-platform mobile applications using Xamarin. She is Microsoft certified
and has been writing software since 1999. During her rip-roaring

Friday nights, you can find her co-teaching a gaggle of high school girls how to code at
the Fox Valley Girls Coding Club. Recent talks include:

Rachael McQuater & Drew Colthorp

Rachael McQuater & Drew Colthorp

Drew Colthorp is a principal consultant and Rachael McQuater is a developer at Atomic Object.
Drew has been seeking out better ways to write JavaScript for 20 years, and Rachael is just
getting started with the same. We're both really excited about the power and beauty of software
that closely models complex real-world problem domains. Together we're working to share what
we've learned about building more robust, powerful, easy-to-write code with TypeScript.

Rebecca Long

Building Inclusive Tech

I'm Interested!

Rebecca Long is a software engineer with 15 years experience focusing on quality assurance and devops
at a cyber-risk assessment company in Spokane, Washington.

Rebecca Long

Rebecca Long is a software engineer with 15 years experience focusing on quality assurance and
devops at a cyber-risk assessment company in Spokane, Washington. She holds undergraduate
and master's degrees in computer science with her thesis on social engineering and phishing
within a financial institution. While having been a leader in the Spokane tech community
for most of the last decade, in 2018 she finally launched her dream of a non-profit called
[Future Ada](http://www.futureada.org) which supports and advocates for women and non-binaries
in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics). She lives with two cats,
who are the true masters of the household.

Ronda Bergman

I'd Hire more Women if they Would Apply!

I'm Interested!

Ronda has been working as a software developer for 18+ years, primarily in the .NET stack. She has worked
for large multi-national organizations and small startups. She is the Co-founder and lead consultant
of EllaVatec.

Ronda Bergman

Ronda has been working as a software developer for 18+ years, primarily in the .NET stack. She
has worked for large multi-national organizations and small startups. She is the Co-founder
and lead consultant of EllaVatec, a diversity and inclusion consultancy. The Co-founder and
Chapter Leader of Girl Develop It Ann Arbor. A Software Artisan at Pillar Technologies, and
the Vice President of Ann Arbor .NET Developers. As a female developer and the mother of
2 female developers she is working hard to help level the playing field for everyone in the
industry.

Ryan Lanciaux

React Now: Learn to build a React application

I'm Interested!

Ryan Lanciaux is a professional software developer in Ann Arbor, MI. Although he programs in several
languages, his current area of focus is front-end development.

Ryan Lanciaux

Ryan Lanciaux is a professional software developer in Ann Arbor, MI. Although he programs in
several languages, his current area of focus is front-end development. He helps companies
and teams build awesome React and React Native applications through his company Spaceship
Studio, LLC. He attempts to contribute to the development community through his (often-neglected)
blog.

Sam Bleckley

It's a Bit of a Drag

I'm Interested!

Sam trained as an artist, and has written software for machine learning labs, computational biochemists,
San Fransisco startups, and local Michigan companies.

Sam Bleckley

Sam trained as an artist, and has written software for machine learning labs, computational biochemists,
San Fransisco startups, and local Michigan companies. He is a freelance engineer, designer,
and consultant; and he operates Vistimo, project management software with an emphasis on
accurate estimation.

Stephen Cleary

The Async Invasion

I'm Interested!

Stephen Cleary is a Christian, husband, and father who programs software in his spare time. :) He is
a Microsoft MVP and the author of "Concurrency in C# Cookbook" (O'Reilly) as well as several
MSDN articles.

Stephen Cleary

Stephen Cleary is a Christian, husband, and father who programs software in his spare time. :)
He is a Microsoft MVP and the author of "Concurrency in C# Cookbook" (O'Reilly)
as well as several MSDN articles. He's also the top answerer for async/await questions on
Stack Overflow. His work usually deals with asynchronous and multithreaded programming, but
he finds any challenging subject interesting. These days he uses C#/JavaScript, but remains
interested in many different languages.

Taylor Krusen

Writing Simple End-To-End Tests That Don't Suck

I'm Interested!

A tech-enthusiast and Japanophile, Taylor Krusen is an Associate Developer Advocate for Smartsheet. He
typically spends his time coding, snowboarding, or teaching his little girl the art of mischief.

Taylor Krusen

A tech-enthusiast and Japanophile, Taylor Krusen is an Associate Developer Advocate for Smartsheet.
He typically spends his time coding, snowboarding, or teaching his little girl the art
of mischief. Taylor's passion for travel, collaboration, and learning have instilled
in him a significant appreciation for diversity of thought.

Thomas Wodarek

Containers and Orchestration with Docker and Kubernetes

I'm Interested!

Thomas is an independent consultant working in the DevOps space around Grand Rapids. Working with containers
and orchestrators, he keeps websites up and queries flowing.

Thomas Wodarek

Thomas is an independent consultant working in the DevOps space around Grand Rapids. Working
with containers and orchestrators, he keeps websites up and queries flowing. When he’s not
building software or giving talks, Thomas is running a soundboard for a random event or singing
as a Tenor.

Tommy Truong and Sokwhan Huh

Target Practice Using WebVR

I'm Interested!

Tommy Truong is currently a User Experience Designer. Sokwhan Huh is currently a Full Stack Developer.
Both at Kunz, Leigh and Associates.

Tommy Truong and Sokwhan Huh

Tommy Truong is currently a User Experience Designer at Kunz, Leigh and Associates with years
of experience working in the private and academic sectors. With a background in UX, accessibility,
and project management, he brought projects from conception to implementation for small-
and large-scale software solutions using web and virtual/augmented reality technologies.

Sokwhan Huh is currently a Full Stack Developer at Kunz, Leigh and Associates with experience
designing, developing, and maintaining large-scale systems in the private and government
sectors since 2012. Sokwhan's passion lies in bringing the cutting-edge web and virtual reality
technologies to people in a user-friendly way.

Learn how to leverage Google's Firebase service to build and host performant and scaleable web and mobile apps from the ground up. No database, server administration or authentication experience required, use only your knowledge in your favorite application development language!

Requirements:
Your own Windows or Mac laptop. Code download requirements to be communicated before workshop.

Kubernetes has established itself as the most promising technology for container orchestration, leveraging Docker to produce a combination of flexibility and reliability. Attendees will learn how to take a pile of code, containerize it, and deploy it to their own functioning Kubernetes cluster.

Virtual reality is one of the hottest topics in the tech world today. In this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to take their own piece of the cake through building their own web-based, VR first-person-shooter using WebVR. Take your JavaScript knowledge and become a VR game developer!

Requirements:
Your own Windows or Mac laptop. It would be preferred for attendees to also have a smartphone so that they can test their mobile game using our cardboard headsets.

At the end of this workshop you will be able to build a web application with the React JavaScript library. We'll cover topics such as state management, how to best structure your components, and great ways to leverage third-party libraries based on my four years of using React in production.

Beware ye of dangers that lurk in “Exampleware” software! Understand how patterns and practices form an Enterprise Architecture stack that adheres to S.O.L.I.D. principles - with a twist. Use code generation techniques to do it! It is time to learn a few new tricks and up your game!

In this beginner's workshop, attendees will learn the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript from a professional web developer and experienced teacher. People will create a simple website and a JavaScript game. Attendees can bring their own website idea to work on, though this is not required.

JavaScript is a powerful language that's flexible- to a fault. TypeScript adds a layer of static typing over JavaScript that makes code stronger, more robust, and easier to write. We're going to dive into TypeScript fundamentals, development patterns, and a handful of magic tricks!

Requirements:
Your own Windows or Mac laptop. Code download requirements to be communicated before workshop.